6 Common Material Specification Mistakes in Oil & Gas Procurement
A purchase order for engineered alloys is not just a commercial transaction — it is a technical specification. In oil and gas, offshore, marine, and industrial procurement, the information on that PO defines what the supplier must deliver, what the mill is required to test, and what the project's QA/QC team will verify at incoming inspection. When the specification is incomplete or incorrect, the consequences flow downstream: non-conforming material accepted, certifications rejected, fabrication holds, and in the most serious cases, material entering service without the properties the application demands. Most of these errors are not made by inexperienced buyers. They are made by experienced procurement teams under time pressure, working from incomplete templates, or relying on shorthand that is understood within one supply relationship but creates real ambiguity internationally. Mistake 1: Grade Name Without UNS Number or ASTM Standard Specifying a trade name in isolation — ...